We Are Not Like Them

Nov 15

We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza

Reviewed by Jess
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Thank you to @hqstories for sending this over to us!♥️

The inside cover of my copy of this book says “We Are Not Like Them is starting conversations”. And with a plot like this, and the format of the book, I can absolutely see why. Philadelphia is rocked by the shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a policeman. It permeates across the city, and through the lives of two best friends, shaking their foundations. Riley, a black reporter on local tv news, and Jen, a white mother-to-be and cop’s wife, find their lifelong friendship is thrown into question as they wonder if they are actually on opposing sides. The authors, collaborating as a black and white writer, alternate their chapters to bring their unique perspectives.

When I finished this book I couldn’t help but think about who this is actually written for. Who were the intended audience? I’m not entirely sure that it was me, to be honest. It’s a huge assault of very convenient issues rolled into one book: from racism, to white poverty in America, even motherhood and infertility, anything you can think of is in here.

Yet it still feels like there’s no joy for anyone black in this book. Maybe that’s what they intended but it didn’t feel right somehow. It offered no new solutions or insights, just repeated trauma. Riley as a character fell flat for me. She needed more life and nuance, and WAY LESS COREY! Yet another convenient “ideal” of a mixed race relationship thrown in that I didn’t think was needed.

I can see this novel will be educational and eye-opening to many, particularly in America, and those who claim to have “Black friends” or are “allies” will find places they have fallen short through this book. The book peaks right at the beginning, with the shooting itself, and I found myself unable to stop reading but I wasn’t into it. I would have loved to learn more about Riley and Jen’s early friendship at the start; maybe I would have been more invested? This is an interesting attempt at something important but I think there’s more work to go.

Fictionwomen writerswearenotlikethemhq storiesracism

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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